Theory

Intervals:

• The combinations of intervals gives music different shapes. It can be:
    * Conjunct
    * Disjunct
    * Chromatic
• An arpeggio is the rising and falling melody using the notes of a chord
• Broken chords are alterations of the first, third, and fifth degrees of a scale
• Scales are sets of notes ordered by increasing or decreasing pitch

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Melodies:

• There are three ways to describe a melody:
    * Diatonic melodies are based on major and minor scales
    * Chromatic melodies are notes outside the music key
    * Atonal melodies aren’t based on a key or tonal centre
• 

Phrases:

• End with cadences
• Musical sentences

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Types of Chord:

• Triad
    * 3 notes
    * Root, third and fifth
• Dominant and subdominant
    * I - tonic
    * IV - subdominant
    * V - dominant
• Sevenths
    * The dominant seventh of a V chord is shown as V7
• Concord
    * All notes agree with each other
    * Complete
• Discord
    * Notes clash
    * Unsettling
• Diatonic
    * Notes belonging to a key
• Chromatic
    * Notes outside a key

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Cadences:

• Perfect cadences are V - I
• Interrupted cadences are minor and surprising
• Imperfect cadences end on V. They sound unfinished
• Plagal cadences sound finished. They are IV - I

Sometimes cadences end in major chord instead of an expected minor chord. This is a Tierce de Picardie

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Tonality:

• The character of music related to its key is tonality
    * Tonal music - major or minor key
    * Atonal music - not related to tonic, no sense of key
    * Modal music - in a mode
      * Dorian mode
      * Mixolydian mode

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Modulation:

• When music changes key, it modulates
• This generally happens to a closely related key
• The keys which are closest to the tonic are the dominant, subdominant or relative minor/major keys

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Bass:

• Drones are held or repeated chords through a piece of music
    * Usually a bare fifth
• Pedals are single notes which are held on or repeated in bass parts
• Inverted pedal notes sustained or repeated in a higher register
• Ground bass is used in baroque music. The bass part is repeated throughout the piece. They can last for many bars
• Ostinatos are repeating patterns/motifs

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Structure:

• Repetition
    * Some sections are repeated
• Double bars
    * Double bar lines (sometimes with repeats) happen at the end of sections
• Keys, cadences
    * Some structures modulate to specific keys at certain points
    * There are clear cadences at the end of sections, which indicate key changes
• Melodies
    * Some sections have distinctive melodies
• Textures
    * Some music has specific textures in specific sections
• Words
    * Any repeated text will help identify structures

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Musical terms (stolen from BBC Bitesize):

• Compound time is where each beat is a dotted note, for example, 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8

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Rhythmic Techniques:

• Syncopation - notes held over beats, instead of only offbeats
• Cross rhythm - two conflicting rhythms heard together
• Polyrhythm - two or more rhythms with different pulses are heard together
• Triplets - three notes played in the time of two
• Hemiola - Gives the impression of music speeding up, but instead, they are the changing of time signature
• Diminuition - musical idea repeated with note values halved
• Augmentation - musical idea repeated with note values doubled
• Offbeats - the weaker beats of the bar
• Anacrusis - Musical phrase starting just before the bar line
• Rubato - performer has the freedom to relax the tempo

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Simple dynamics (courtesy of BBC bite-size):

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Simple articulation (BBC Bite-size):

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Vocal range examples:

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Texture:

• Unison
    * No chordal accompaniment
• Monophonic
    * One line of music
    * One instrument
    * No accompaniment
    * No secondary melody
    * Can be done in unison
• Homophonic
    * Block chords / choral music
• Polyphonic
    * Aka contrapuntal music
    * May have imitation
      * Add ornaments
      * Change in octabe
      * Same melody in notes of different duration
    * Fugues
      * The specific type of polyphonic texture
      * Begin with the melody played on a solo instrument, voice, or in unison
      * Then it is played by all of the other instruments in turn, but not at the same pitch
• Heterophonic
    * Simultaneous variation of a single melody line
    * Variations played over the original melody
      * ie gamelan
• Antiphonal
    * More than one group of instruments/voices
    * Played in different parts of the concert venue
    * Melody passed between the groups
• Melody and accompaniment
    * You can clearly distinguish between the two
• Countermelody
    * Secondary melody played in counterpoint with original melody
    * Common in fugues
• Descant
    * Additional melody played on top of existing texture
    * Last verse of carols when sopranos sing higher

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Notes:
1 Tonic
2 Supertonic
3 Median
4 Subdominant
5 Dominant
6 Submediant
7 Leading note

8 Octave

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Tonality:

• F major scale has one flat
• C major scale has no sharps or flats
• Enharmonic notes - when a note can be called two different things (for example Eb and D#)
• Relative minors
    * Count down three semitones
    * The pattern of melodic minor keys is:
      * Tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - tone - semitone ascending and tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone descending
    * Harmonic minors use the relative major and raise the seventh note
• Minor scales
    * Melodic minor
      * The sixth and seventh degrees are raised on the way up and flattened on the way down
    * Harmonic minor
      * Augmented second between the sixth and seventh degree of the scale
• Triads of a key are shown using roman numerals
• Modal - This means that the music is in a mode
• Atonal - This means that the music is not related to a tonic - no sense of key
• Tonal - In a major or minor key
• Pentatonic scale - a five-note scale. Usually, it will be I, II, III, V, VI (especially common in Chinese and Japanese music)
• Whole Tone scale - scale where there are ONLY whole tones between the notes used (6 notes total, especially common in impressionism)
• Working out sharp keys (major) - look at the last sharp, and go up one step
• Working out flat keys (major) - look at the second to last flat

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Tempo key terms (courtesy of bitesize):

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